1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a material applicator assembly and to a method for using the material applicator assembly and more particularly, to a rotatable material applicator assembly which is selectively dispenses an amount of adhesive in an efficient and secure manner.
2. Background of the Invention
A commercial assembly line typically includes means for applying an amount of adhesive to particular locations of the components being assembled.
These conventional adhesive applicators typically include a plurality of glue emitters or “guns” which deposit an amount of glue upon certain portion or portions of a component as it passes along the assembly line. These glue guns are oftentimes rigidly fixed along the line and are operated by selectively forcing an amount of glue out of the gun when the component is positioned in the appropriate location relative to the gun. While this system and method does deposit glue in the intended location, it suffers from certain drawbacks.
Particularly, many surfaces which are adhesively bonded are not flat and/or do not have a uniform profile. Oftentimes, however, an amount of material, such as glue, is required along the entire length of a relatively large (i.e., long) component having such a non-uniform profile and the effectiveness of glue guns is limited by the size, location, and shape of the nozzles of the glue guns. These “irregular” surfaces cause conventional applicator guns to undesirably place either too much or too little adhesive (or other material) upon the different contours of objects that are not flat. Because of this, the applicator nozzles must be positioned precisely where the material is intended to be deposited along the length of the object. This type of precision requires a relatively slow component flow rate through the assembly line and “bottle-necks” are therefore formed at gluing stations unless more glue guns are employed, which undesirably increases the costs involved in the assembly process.
Other methodologies used to eliminate this relatively slow component flow rate include keeping the glue gun continuously “on” while the component is passing through the station instead of intermittently turning the gun on and off. While this methodology permits higher flow rate, it causes undesirable causes waste of glue by exceeding the required amounts necessary for an effective bond and/or undesirably deposits glue upon portions of the component which must be cleaned off later.
The present invention overcomes these and other disadvantages of the present invention in a new and novel manner.